Alleged Hit Man, Accomplices Indicted For Murder Of Victim With Same Name As Target

An alleged hit man and his employers were indicted for the 2006 death of a man who was mistakenly killed because he had the same name as their intended target.

Cleveland.com reports, 57-year-old Carl Jeffrey Rosebrook, 59-year-old Joseph Rosebrook and 45-year-old Chad South were taken into custody on June 1 after years of investigation into Daniel Ott’s 2006 murder in Cleveland, Ohio. The three men were indicted on June 10 on charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.

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Joseph Rosebrook allegedly made the arrangements for South to kill a man named Daniel Ott, who forced Rosebrook to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge. At the time of the alleged murder plot, Rosebrook was serving 10 years in prison, reports Palm Beach Post. Carl Rosebrook oversaw South’s payment while his brother was in prison, police say.

(L: Carl Jeffery Rosebrook / R: Chad South)

The Daniel Ott who was allegedly killed by South was not the intended target. The victim was instead an “unassuming” man who lived with his girlfriend and worked at a greenhouse nursery. Because of the mixup, it took detectives six months to discover the intended target was different than the man who was killed.

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For years, the case was stalled due, according to Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland, to witnesses questioned in the case who were simply too terrified to give any information because Rosebrook’s reputation.

“Detectives repeatedly ran into the phrase, 'I know what you want, but they will kill me,'” McClelland said. “Witnesses flat out refused to talk."

Eight years later, police finally solved the case thanks to state investigators and wiretaps.

The surviving Daniel Ott has reportedly survived multiple assassination attempts in the past.